Messages - Duncanjp

There are definitely some pea-brained commenters under that article, spouting populist BS such as, "No one ever needs a lawyer," and "If you're an attorney, you haven't contributed a single thing to society."

Okay, so to reframe my original observation, it's your opinion that people are "idiots" who make life decisions for themselves that you would not have made for yourself. And they deserve to be told so on internet forums (embellishing now). So far, you've called me stupid, but I was really hoping for a more substantive reply.

If so......you are an even bigger idiot that the burger king worker who made an attempt at it.You wasted energy and time to change nothing.

He or she made decisions based on personal circumstances. Perhaps you would have made different choices for yourself. This is a poor reason to call somebody an idiot. An attorney knows better than to scrutinize the validity of other people's decisions exclusively in light of his or her own situation, which is what you are doing. Sure, for you to follow his path would be a poor decision. But the inverse is no less true.

I quit reading after "a lawyer knows better than"go outside and meet people in real life

If so......you are an even bigger idiot that the burger king worker who made an attempt at it.You wasted energy and time to change nothing.

He or she made decisions based on personal circumstances. Perhaps you would have made different choices for yourself. This is a poor reason to call somebody an idiot. An attorney knows better than to scrutinize the validity of other people's decisions exclusively in light of his or her own situation, which is what you are doing. Sure, for you to follow his path would be a poor decision. But the inverse is no less true.

I graduated from a four-year CBE school and passed the bar while holding down a career position in insurance underwriting. My goal was singular: Get the License. Between my age and my unwillingness to move, the benefits of an ABA pedigree didn't justify the cost, especially in light of the fact that I had no intent or desire to abandon my career for the salary of a junior associate at a law firm. Overall, becoming a blue collar, CBE-educated attorney has been a very positive experience for me. I have everything that I hoped to get from becoming an attorney - along with all the unanticipated consequences that they don't put in the brochure. Although I have no bragging rights among ABA-educated attorneys, I nevertheless have their cooperation and respect when negotiating transactions. Nobody gives a rip where you went to law school if you aren't applying for a job. Also, I was able to pay cash for my tuition and expenses, so I have none of the debt that burdens many law students at the end of the process. But if my goal had been to get a job in Biglaw, a CBE school would have been a waste of money. Make no mistake.

To set the record straight, CBE students do not have to take the FYLSE (baby bar), so long as they successfully complete the first year. However, those who fail to make the minimum required GPA (2.0 or better in each of the core subjects) may be required to pass the FYLSE before the school will allow them to continue to the second year. Alternately, the school might allow an unsuccessful student who got very close to simply retake the first year. It's up to the school. Note that those who do really poorly may be told to go away for a couple of years and consider whether becoming a lawyer is truly feasible.

OP, if you didn't do well in an ABA environment, I would caution you against thinking that a CBE school is going to be any easier unless you don't have to work. CBE schools teach the same material from the same casebooks and administer the same kind of exams that you would find in ABA schools. CBE schools are filled with working adults who are striving to achieve a goal. The competition for valedictorian isn't as fierce as it would be at Stanford, but most of the people in the class are very bright and extremely driven. They wouldn't be there, otherwise. And I can say without equivocation, becoming an attorney through a CBE-accredited school was the hardest fecking thing I have ever done in my life. Comparatively speaking, my four-year tour of duty in the Marines was a picnic.

Yeah, that's probably true, π. I'm astonished at how many non-attorneys think that chasing ambulances is how attorneys actually make their living. (What comes of getting your information from television.) People who aren't lawyers don't know very much about being a real lawyer. When they go to law school, however, they learn the difference between fantasy and the real world. Exposure to reality doesn't have to be incompatible with the journey of discovery, though. Not if you start with a substantive goal in mind and a burning desire to achieve it.

The true, underlying reason for going to law school isn't that important in the greater scheme of things, so long as the prospective student can articulate a reason that means something to him or her. But going to law school with no vision or fundamental purpose for doing so — that's a huge mistake. Law school isn't junior college, where students, especially those right out of high school, often flop from semester to semester with no idea why they're even there. Law school demands focus and commitment. This requires having a goal in mind. Your goal doesn't have to be immutable, but it should be clear in your mind before you take the leap. Otherwise, you're wasting your time and money.